Coffee vs. energy drink: a jolt is a jolt

Once upon a time, the only soft drink you could find without caffeine in it was Orange Crush. Then along came the caffeine-free drinks. But now days they have a little cocktail of caffeine with an added boost of ginseng. They call ’em energy drinks.

My metabolism is so high that I can drink a double espresso at midnight and sleep like a baby, so I never did see the benefit in buying an energy drink at $2.50 a can. But I did run across a Washington State study comparing coffee consumption to energy drinks that I found interesting.

Concerns have been expressed that energy drinks consumed rapidly provide a dangerous jolt of caffeine, but according to findings published in the journal Clinical Toxicology (www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/15563650.2016.1146740) in April, “caffeine exposure was very similar” and “would not be expected to result in clinically significant differences in effect.”

I am a simpleton needing simple words, but I read that to say a jolt is a jolt.

The research team from the health sciences faculty from the WSU Colleges of Pharmacy, Medicine and Nursing compared coffee to energy drink, hot to cold and rapid to slow consumption rates.

Essentially, they wanted to see if you would get a higher, more rapid peak caffeine level if you slammed your coffee cold as opposed to slowly sipping it hot. They also compared coffee to energy drinks to address the concern that, ounce for ounce, rapidly consumed energy drinks provide a greater “jolt” of caffeine concentration in the body.

The study specifically measured concentration of caffeine in the body, not effects of caffeine on the brain, which varies between individuals depending on two major factors: how fast a person metabolizes caffeine and the individual’s genetic array of caffeine receptors in the brain.

Receptors in the brain? Whatever happened to drinking for the taste? Slammers of anything can affect my receptors in the brain.

The fact that there are people out there using energy drinks as a mixer, say “Gimme a vodka and Red Bull,” makes you wonder what’s happening to their receptors in the brain.

Here in the coffee capital of the nation, coffee is still what makes the world go round. Being of the more-is-better-mindset, I think I’ll just stick to Starbucks for my morning jolt to the receptors in the brain.

Rodney Harwood covers business and sports for the Columbia Basin Herald. He can be reached via email at businessag@columbiabasinherald.com.